Tupelo High School's Wave Connection celebrates with upbeat show

Journey and Van Halen and Styx, oh my. Tupelo High School’s Wave Connection is celebrating everything classic rock, complete with big sing-alongs and headbanging.
“It’s really fun,” said Wave Connection director Danielle Frerer. “I wanted the audience to know every song so they could sing along.”
From Journey’s “Faithfully” to Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” and an epic Queen tribute, the show is full of hit songs from the 70s and 80s. Though the singers and dancers in Wave Connection weren’t alive when these songs topped the charts, they’re having a ton of fun singing songs that everyone knows.
“My mom was so excited,” when she saw the set list, said 15-year-old sophomore Molly Homan. “She said, ‘I’m gonna come and sing along.’”
Homan said she digs the Queen tribute, full of “Another One Bites the Dust,” “We Are the Champions,” “We Will Rock You” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Junior Tanner Collum, 16, said one of her favorite songs is “Faithfully.”
“It is such a pretty song,” she said.
The choreography and the girls’ sparkly gold dresses complement the music.
“We’ve had some alumni come in to do the choreography, and they’ve done a great job marrying the moves with the music,” Frerer said. “They really took the genre and went with it.”
“The dance breaks are really fun,” Homan said. “We jam out with our favorite moves.”
REO Speedwagon, The Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi will get the Wave Connection treatment at the show this weekend, and it’s just as much fun for the performers as it is for the audience.
“It’s a fun and upbeat show,” Collum said. “It’s good to use the older music to entertain the younger generations.”
sheena.barnett@journalinc.com